The best way I would think to do all of New York in moderate detail would be to build a map of vectors representing most all of the streets of New York. This will take some manpower. Each vector has an ID which identifies the style of road it represents: four lane highway, oneway boulevard, alley, etc. Create a function which procedurally renders the roads given this vector info.

Then, zone out your areas on the map so they contain info on what their land use is: New commercial districts, old rundown commercial districts, new business parks, old industrial areas, parks, urban hirise living, suburban housing, etc. Then write procedural generators of buildings given this zoning info to place buildings according to the zoning info.

Areas would be generated based on the player''s current location. If the player opts to enter a building, then given info on the building type, you could have procedural generators to ''decorate'' and furnish the interiors of the buildings.

You could even take it a step further. If the player was to rifle through the contents of a desk drawer, you could have procedural generators to populate the desk drawer with items such as a letter opener, a pistol, and so on.

- I tend to doubt that the ability to roam and explore is all that important. Does the objective of the game require it? - Lubb

Roaming and exploring should be there so that when the player is bored of all else, they still have something to keep them going.

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

- They shouldn''t be bored. They should either be the winner, or eliminated from the game. - Lubb

RPD=Role-Playing-Dialogue. It''s not a game,it never was. Deal with it.

Face the fact that a player will ALWAYS get bored. That is why you add in extra options . M&M7 got me bored... And it was a great game. Pity I couldn''t really do much else other than kill things

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

quote: Original post by dwarfsoft

Face the fact that a player will ALWAYS get bored.

Agreed. No matter how well designed, you can''t guarantee that there''ll be no "slow spots."


My only fear is that if there''s too much space, the freedom to roam may become boring in itself.


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Just waiting for the mothership...

quote: Original post by Wavinator

My only fear is that if there''s too much space, the freedom to roam may become boring in itself.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

I think that goes back to bishop''s brilliant note that the world must have depth as much as it does interactivity and freedom.




"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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